John 9 – Mud in the Eyes Christians

After reading and re-reading the story of the man born blind in John 9 today I am struck by the power and authority of Jesus combined with the blind man’s willing obedience. Our faith is a partnership of unequals. We can’t even take credit for listening and doing because without his command we wouldn’t have [...]

Gospel of John 8:12-59 – Jesus Gets Testy

John 8:12-59 contains some of the best known lines in John but they aren’t said to a loving, accepting mob of fervent believers. They are spoken to a mostly obnoxious and rebellious group in Jerusalem. In 8:12 Jesus says he is the light of the world. One of the great “I am” statements and one [...]

Gospel of John 4:43-54 A Big Request

43After the two days he left for Galilee. 44(Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) 45When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, for they also had been there.
46Once more he [...]

Gospel of John 1:19-28 Who is John the Baptist?

I just love this picture of John the Baptist. His posture looks intense but his expression looks pretty bored. It reminds me of a passion play we saw last Easter. John the Baptist went down in the Jordan to baptize Jesus, not realizing his wireless was on he said, “@#*% this water is hot!” The [...]

God as Divine Warrior

When you hear people talk about salvation it is often in that some day, over there type discussion. It is true that salvation has components that have not yet taken place (Rom 13:11). But it is also true that in the here and now God is fighting for us. In both testaments the word salvation [...]

Jesus’ Resurrection – More Than Meets the Eye

One thing I think we often fail to consider is exactly what was happening when it comes to Jesus’ resurrection. The standard thought is Jesus was raised from the dead and so we will be raised from the dead. But there is a lot more to it than that. The parts we often skip over [...]

Eugene Peterson on Word Over Personal Experience

I want to counter this widespread practice of taking personal experience instead of the Bible as the authority for living. I want to pull the Christian Scriptures back from the margins of the contemporary imagination where they have been so rudely elbowed by their glamorous competitors, and reestablish them at the center as the text [...]

Baptism – Related to Salvation but Not a Work

Two insights from Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament that help us get a better understanding of baptism:
1) Baptism is seen in the New Testament as part of God’s reconciling process. Here are some words from Oepke in Kittel,
“Christian baptism certainly has as its final goal new and eternal life…the new life stands in [...]

What Did Jesus Do During His Three Days in the Grave?

Did you know the answer to that question may be found in the story of the flood in Genesis 6? There is this strange verse tucked into the Flood story in Genesis 6:4 – “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men [...]

Got Picked Up by Imonk Today

Thanks to Michael Spencer for linking to Kingdom Living. You should read his post on Guidelines for Interpreting the Gospels and the comments that follow. It is an excellent discussion. I love how the internet can make such a big world seem so small.